Xbox Series X Will Support Full Backwards Compatibility From Day One
Published
| Last updated
Featured Image Credit: Microsoft
One area in which Xbox objectively soared ahead of PlayStation this generation is in backwards compatibility. When it came to the opportunity to replay old classics, the PlayStation 4 simply couldn't touch the Xbox One. Microsoft's machine might have been light on exclusives, but the fact you could play through a massive library of OG Xbox and Xbox 360 games on Xbox One was pretty awesome.
Luckily, the newly-named Xbox Series X will continue this retro love-fest. We already knew that the next-gen machine would support your vast library of Xbox titles old and new, but a new announcement confirms that Xbox Series X will allow you to carry over your entire collection of games on Xbox One from day one.
To clarify, that means as soon as Xbox Series X launches towards the end of next year, every single Xbox, Xbox 360, and Xbox One game currently available on the current-gen Xbox will be playable. That's neato burrito, to use a technical term.
Loading…
"We wanted to make sure we had that, day one, we could deliver on the compatibility promise, and so I've been playing quite a few [Xbox 360] games on my [Xbox Series X] and Xbox One games on the [Xbox Series X] and that's just to ensure that we can be there day one," Xbox head honcho Phil Spencer told GameSpot.
"We have thousands of games that run on Xbox One today," Xbox Partner Director of Program Management Jason Ronald added. "We want those games to be able to come forward with you but we also want your services to come with you."
"We want your gaming legacy to come with you, whether that's your Gamerscore, whether that's your friends list, all your Achievements, your game saves, all of that should come forward so there are no barriers for you as you think about moving forward."
Ronald also revealed that bringing three previous generations of Xbox to the new console was an awful lot of work. As I'm sure you can imagine. He explained that every game has been "optimized to the unique hardware capabilities of the device," so expect even the oldest of games to look that little bit smoother in action on the Series X.
"It is a new chip architecture," Ronald said. "At the same time, we did design the silicon with [backwards] compatibility in mind, so we did make certain decisions to try to lessen that work, but I don't want to trivialize how much work the team's actually doing because there is a tremendous amount of work."
We also know that the Xbox Series X will support all your current Xbox One controllers and peripherals, which is lovely. As if that wasn't enough for you, the brand new Xbox Series X controller will also work with all Xbox One consoles. All in all, Microsoft is making some very welcome moves as we step into the next-gen. Your move, PlayStation.
Topics: Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PlayStation
